


Boring

by zenonaa



Category: Dangan Ronpa
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-15
Updated: 2015-10-15
Packaged: 2018-04-26 13:13:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5006128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zenonaa/pseuds/zenonaa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sayaka and Kirigiri are going on their first date together so of course ask a few friends for advice. Somehow everyone gets in on it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Boring

**“What time should we meet?”**

* * *

Sayaka closed her eyes and breathed in through her nose, inhaling incense. She recognised the scent. Jasmine. Sweet. At the start of the love and relationship session, Yasuhiro had recited a list of different incenses and described their properties to her. He told her that jasmine was associated with water and, to a lesser extent, earth, love and night. Another scent related to love was rose, which she expected, though rose covered the entire spectrum of romance while jasmine focused on the mental and emotional sides of love.

Yasuhiro pounded his fist against his thigh.

She opened her eyes, ready to hear his answer.

“Morning,” he said, peering into the crystal ball that he had placed on the rug between them.

“Morning?” said Sayaka.

“Morning,” Yasuhiro confirmed.

Her brow creased. “Morning?”

“Morning,” he said firmly.

“Why morning?”

Yasuhiro leaned over the rug.

She brought her face closer as well, barely daring to breathe.

“Breakfasts cost less than dinners,” he explained.

Sayaka hesitated.

“Cost really isn’t an issue,” she said.

“Seriously?” He sat up straight and let out a low whistle. “Kirigiri-chi is one lucky lady...”

“It’s more like I’m the lucky one. Kirigiri-san is so cool and wonderful... Naegi-kun must have rubbed off on me,” she said with a faint smile. “But...”

Yasuhiro twirled his hand, gesturing for Sayaka to finish her sentence. “But...?”

Sayaka’s smile managed to shrink without disappearing completely.

“I’m scared that it’ll go wrong,” she confessed, hushed. Her hands trembled on her lap but she kept her voice steady. She squeezed her hands into tight fists to keep them still. “My public life and my personal life have always been strictly choreographed and I know Hope’s Peak is able to conceal a lot of the stuff that students get up to, but what if the media still finds out about me and Kirigiri-san?”

No matter how hard her nails bit into her palms, Sayaka couldn’t control the tremors in her arms.

“What if my agency can’t disprove the rumours?” she asked. “M-My career...”

Yasuhiro lay his right hand over one of her fists.

Sayaka peeked up.

His face was stern. “Maizono-chi, life might be one of the longest things you’ll ever have, but it’s the only one you get.”

“Are... you saying that I should give up on Kirigiri-san?”

“Nah. I mean, only if you want to, but that isn’t the Maizono-chi I know. The one I know, she does what her heart tells her to do and she wears a cute face as she does it. Cute enough to be downright scary at times...”

“Huh?”

“N-Not because you’re ugly!” he said quickly. “Because you look really calm and determined even if you’re facing something most people would run away from, ‘right?”

This earned a slightly bigger smile from her.

“Besides, most people who see you and Kirigiri-chi together are just going to assume that you’re close friends, ‘right? Nothing else. I bet newspapers are going to stick a photo of you and Kirigiri-chi at your wedding under the headline, ‘Idol and detective make best friends forever title official’.”

Sayaka giggled.

Yasuhiro beamed. “Now, there’s that cute face of yours.” 

* * *

“Duh! In the evening,” said Leon, and Kyouko could tell he was trying not to roll his eyes.

Her locker shut with a clang. She withdrew her hand from it and folded her arms over her chest, hugging a mathematics textbook against herself. “Why do you consider evening to be the optimal time of day?”

“Ain’t it obvious? For one thing, by the time you head back, it’s going to be late so it’s the perfect excuse to sleep over for the night. And as for another thing, all the good places are thriving at that kind of time.”

Kyouko tilted her head to one side and watched him reach his hand into his locker, rummaging around for something.

“Define ‘good places’ to me,” she said, not feeling any enthusiasm as he shook his backside.

A few seconds later, Leon turned around with a notebook in his hand. She recognised it, able to recall seeing him whip it out on several different occasions. In class. The cafeteria. When he was supposed to be helping everyone else tidy their homeroom. He jotted down song lyrics in it. Sayaka had read some of them and told Kyouko they were, ‘bold’.

Leon’s voice hauled Kyouko’s gaze off the notebook and to his face. “Good places. You know... Night clubs. Bars. That kind of thing.”

“Most of those places in this area require you to be at least twenty.”

“Not if you play your cards right,” said Leon. He stiffened. “Hey, you can’t arrest people for something like that, can you? You’re just a detective, yeah?”

Kyouko widened her eyes only for a moment but it was long enough for Leon to flinch.

“You would be correct,” she said.

He didn’t totally relax.

She figured that the conversation had concluded and strode toward the door.

“Hey,” said Leon. “Kirigiri.”

Kyouko stopped, facing the door. “Hm?”

“If you want to go out earlier, the arcade’s a good place too.”

“That’s good to know. Thank you,” she said with a secret smile. 

* * *

**“Where should we go?”**

* * *

“On a run,” said Aoi. She rubbed her towel against her hair, tip of her pink tongue poking out of her mouth, foot hiked up and resting on the bench in front of her. 

Sayaka tightened her fist over her heart, bunching up a bit of the towel that she was wearing. Her hair dripped water onto the tiled floor and clung to her damp skin like how her standard navy swimsuit had done, that she had since stripped off, that now resided at the bottom of her pink duffel bag.

“Asahina, my girl, you shouldn’t rub your hair with your towel like that,” said Sakura, her towel tied with a knot around her waist.

“Huh?” Aoi stopped and looked up at Sakura. “Why not?”

“Your technique risks causing breakage to your hair and wet hair is more susceptible to damage than dry hair. I advise you pat the towel against your head to remove liquid.” Sakura left a pause. “I read it in a magazine.”

“Oh,” said Aoi, and she started to blot her hair with her towel instead.

Sayaka’s brow furrowed and she repeated what Aoi had said before. “On a run...”

“Yup.” Aoi wound her towel around her head and placed her elevated foot onto the floor so she could step into her panties.

“Are you sure a run would be a good first date?” asked Sayaka, the hand not holding up her towel close to her mouth.

“Why wouldn’t it be?” said Aoi as she wiggled her panties up her legs.

“I don’t know if Kirigiri-san likes running.”

“It’s a good hobby to get into.”

Sayaka tensed at the fluttering sensation that erupted in her chest. Her grip on her towel slackened. She moved her arms and wrapped them around herself, which kept her towel secured on her. Running... did Kyouko do a lot of running? Kyouko did run errands for her father sometimes but she never disclosed what exactly those errands involved, and Sayaka didn’t pry beyond offering to assist her. The offer was complimented but declined and Sayaka had thought little of it. Every girl had her secrets.

She knew she did.

“Feh,” came a voice from behind them that Sayaka recognised to belong to Touko. “I-If you listen to that ring doughnut head’s advice, you’re just going to end up fatigued and stinking of sweat. No one else will be able to be in the same room as you for longer than five seconds without wanting to vomit.”

“Hey, Fukawa-san,” said Sayaka with ingrained politeness. She slapped on a smile and turned her body around enough so Touko entered her line of sight, with the intention of asking for Touko’s opinion. After all, Touko was a top-selling romance writer, so she must have had some idea on where they could go for their first date. A few of the protagonists in her novel were mysterious, or stoic, or shy, or some combination of those three adjectives, and the icing on the cake was that Touko was currently dating someone.

Before Sayaka could say anything, however, Aoi pivoted on her heel, swinging around so she faced Touko directly. Sayaka caught a glimpse of Aoi’s face and shuffled away a little, as if Aoi’s glare could potentially burn her if she stood too close.

Whatever Aoi was going to say, or perhaps even do, to Touko never came to fruition. Touko shrieked and with speed that she never hinted to be capable of during gym class, darted over to the changing room door and shoved it open.

“Don’t make me part of your lewd world!” said Touko just before she ran out. The door slammed shut behind her.

“Wow, she was fast,” said Sayaka.

Aoi shrugged her shoulders and heaved out a sigh. “... I’ll never understand her,” she said. Sakura nodded. Sayaka turned back to the bench.

Then Aoi put her bra on.

* * *

“Uh, I’d love to help you out on that, but...” Mondo scratched the back of his neck, eyes averted. “I’ve never... you know. Got that far with anyone.”

Kyouko gave a single nod, perched on the edge of the desk to Mondo’s left that wasn’t actually hers but was Mukuro’s desk. He hitched up one end of his mouth into an apologetic grin and went back to concentrating on the block of wood that he was screwing a nail into. She suspected that it was going to be a battery tester.

“Do not fret, Kirigiri-kun. If you cannot think of a suitable location, you can simply stay in school for your outing. There are lots of things to do here,” said Kiyotaka brightly, stationed at the desk in front of Mukuro’s desk.

Mondo looked up from his block of wood. “Let me guess... They could have a study session?”

“Yes! Aha, you read my mind,” replied Kiyotaka, fingers splayed out.

“And maybe afterwards, they could go to the laundry room to watch some wash cycles?” Mondo suggested with a smirk. He realised from Kiyotaka’s earnest face that he was taking Mondo seriously so added, “All that isn’t ‘xactly romantic.”

Kiyotaka’s smile drooped a bit.

“This is a romantic outing?” asked Kiyotaka.

“Indeed,” Hifumi said from Mondo’s right. He stuck up his index finger and wagged it at Kiyotaka. “Maizono Sayaka-dono and Kirigiri Kyouko-dono have gone down the path lined with blossoms... The yuri route. ”

“What?” shouted Kiyotaka at a classroom appropriate volume, wide-eyed, fist clenched over his heart. “B-But we’re still in school!”

Lightning didn’t strike at the revelation. That would have been odd because it was a clear midday, but still. Instead the sky stayed dull blue, similar to the eyes of Byakuya who strode into the room a few seconds later.

“It’s not like they’re planning their wedding,” said Mondo.

“E-Exactly!”

Mondo gave him a look not unlike one of sympathy and turned back to Kyouko. “I always thought it’d be pretty cool to walk a dog on a first date. It’s like my brother always said... ‘Never trust a guy who doesn’t treat his dog well’.”

Hifumi prodded the tips of his index fingers together. “Are you sure he meant that kind of dog?”

“Eh? What are you trying to say here?” asked Mondo, squinting one eye.

“Eek!” Hifumi began to furiously shake his head. “N-Nothing!”

“‘Cause all dogs are hella awesome!”

“Eeek!”

Kyouko dragged her gaze off Hifumi and set it down on Mondo, who was eyeing Hifumi with a mixture of anger and confusion.

She cleared her throat. “Neither of us have a dog.”

Mondo met her eyes. “That’s lame.”

“We’re at a boarding school,” she pointed out.

Hifumi drummed his fingers against his desk but didn’t say anything.

“... Right,” Mondo said. “Yeah. Uh... Maybe that guy with the hamsters could lend you one?”

“A hamster?”

“A dog!”

Kyouko cupped her chin in thought.

* * *

**“What if I don’t know what to say?”**

* * *

“Pardon? Maizono-san, I must not have heard you correctly,” Celes said with her hand against her lips, shocked or at least feigning the emotion.

“Nope, I’m pretty sure you heard right,” Sayaka replied. She pushed her castle piece onto the square that one of Celes’s pawns was on. Her chair creaked a bit as she leaned forward and grinning weakly, she confiscated Celes’s fallen chess piece. It joined the six pawns that Sayaka had so far managed to capture. “Phew, that guy nearly got all the way to the other side.”

Byakuya, seated on a chair by the door of the recreation room, reading here because the library was closed for an all-day workshop, pulled a face at his book. Probably at Sayaka’s usage of ‘guy’. He flipped to the next page and let his face relax.

“But Maizono-san, you are a social butterfly,” Celes commented, drawing Sayaka’s gaze away from Byakuya. She hopped a knight piece forward and claimed Sayaka’s last bishop. “You must forgive me for being surprised at hearing such a confession from you.”

Sayaka hunched her shoulders. “I’m fine if the other person starts a conversation but coming up with things to talk about isn’t one of my strengths, you see. I can never think of any interesting topics, and Kirigiri-san is so smart... I don’t mind if it gets quiet but I don’t want to put her off.”

“I dare say initiating a conversation won’t matter in the slightest and it is for two reasons.” Celes lifted her hand, balled into a fist, and stuck out her thumb. “Firstly, Kirigiri-san isn’t much of a conversationalist so talk will be sparse, and secondly,” she uncurled her index finger, “you’re a pretty girl, so Kirigiri-san will be left breathless when she sees you all made up and won’t be able to talk in the first place.”

Her words brought a grin onto Sayaka’s face that Sayaka couldn’t partner with eye contact.

Meanwhile, Byakuya simply clucked his tongue.

“Hm?” Celes twisted around and looked over at him. ”Do you wish to interject?”

“No. Your advice is terrible, that’s all,” he replied, keeping his eyes fixed on his book.

Celes turned back to Sayaka, smile frozen onto her face, and moved a castle piece into check. “Never mind him. Togami-kun has only had one girlfriend while I have had several more, one of them being Kirigiri-san herself, so he is rather lacking in experience yet feels compelled to take part in our discussion to give himself some level of self-imposed authority.”

Byakuya shot a glare at Celes. “I have only had one relationship because I’m still in said relationship as we both keep each other’s interest. You’re telling Maizono to bore Kirigiri or hope that Kirigiri’s too shallow to notice that she’s on a godawful date. There’s no doubt this is why you have gone through ‘several’ girlfriends. You better be more competent at chess or else the time I’ve spent waiting for our game will have been a complete waste.”

Even at that, Celes didn’t drop her smile.

Sayaka trained her eyes on the chessboard and evacuated her king to the square on its left.

“Just because we’re all friends, that doesn’t mean we should bicker,” said Sayaka, in an attempt to defuse the situation.

Celes cut in before Byakuya could.

“Yes, yes. You’re right, Maizono-san. Anyway, it’s quite the contrary. My past relationships failed because of the other party, not because of me. None of them were willing to compromise. Kirigiri-san as well... though we parted due to conflicting interests. Togami-kun, you and Fukawa-san are a peculiar couple that I wouldn’t compare to others, so your opinion sadly doesn’t have much weight,” said Celes. Byakuya glowered and hid his face behind his book, signalling the end of his input. Her tone warmed a bit when she directed her next sentence at Sayaka. “Honestly, Maizono-san, I don’t wish to sound like I’m shaming you, but your worries are rather trivial.”

Her queen slid diagonally forward.

“Checkmate,” said Celes sweetly, and she flicked her nail at Sayaka’s king. 

* * *

“I’m sure that won’t happen. You’ll have plenty to talk about,” Chihiro assured Kyouko. Makoto nodded in agreement, lips pressed into a determined line.

Waning steam floated out of Kyouko’s cup of tea. Dinner had long since been served and at its conclusion, the cafeteria largely emptied of both pupils and the lingering smell of curry rice. Courtesy of Leon, Yasuhiro, Junko and Mukuro, the voices of those at Kyouko’s table were drowned out by an animated discussion about what seemed to be Leon’s chances of making it into the music industry, if the mentions of ‘rockstars’ and ‘weenie’ had relevance to the main topic. Leon waved his arms while Junko mimicked him with her tongue hanging out, Leon speaking too quickly to be understood and Junko too mumbly to be intelligible.

Yasuhiro and Mukuro acted as cheerleaders and, in Yasuhiro’s case, acted as emotional support for Leon, apparently, because Yasuhiro rubbed Leon on the back when Leon planted his face into the table just a few minutes into the discussion.

The four of them would be fine. Kyouko was eighty per cent certain of that.

“Maizono-san is a lot more outgoing than I am,” said Kyouko, talking quietly despite the small risk of anyone listening in. Her thighs rubbed together as she adjusted her position in her chair and she stared at the windowed walls on the other side of the room, staring into winter’s opaque nighttime black. “That’s something no one can deny. I don’t wish to make her feel uncomfortable with any long silences, but I’m going to come across as dull if I try to put forward a topic of my choosing.”

“That’s a legitimate concern...” Chihiro tapped their finger against their chin.

“No, it isn’t,” said Makoto sharply, rounding on them, a lot more offended than Kyouko. This wasn’t saying much, because she wasn’t really offended, but Chihiro twitched at his outburst.

“Ah, I... I didn’t mean it like that,” said Chihiro, waving their hands. “I... I just meant...”

Their shoulders slumped and their hands fell still.

“I meant that it’s understandable. I worry about the same things too,” they explained, looking down at their lap. “Even now, Naegi-kun, while I’m dating you... I find myself wondering at times if you’re going to grow impatient with me and go after someone else.”

Makoto stared at Chihiro. “No... I would never do that, Fujisaki-kun. I think you’re amazing.”

Chihiro glanced up. “What about when I’m talking about programming? You must feel lost then...”

“It doesn’t matter if I can understand what you’re saying completely or not. The way you light up and get excited about your passion... It’s worth it.”

The two of them shared smiles.

Kyouko, whose fingers had been steepled together, disentangled them and took a drink from her cup of tea. Part of Kyouko felt slightly bad as she steered the conversation back to herself, but it was necessary.

“Are you suggesting that I let her choose the subject matter?” she asked, eyes flitting back and forth between Makoto and Chihiro. Both of them turned their heads toward her.

“If you can’t think of anything to say, yeah,” said Makoto.

Chihiro inhaled and the other two waited, anticipating a comment, but were instead greeted by a loud bang that caused everything on the table to rattle. Kyouko calmly lowered her cup onto its saucer.

“Yo!” said Junko. She raised her fist from the table and opened up her hand so she could give a friendly wave.

“E-Enoshima-san,” said Makoto weakly, clutching his chest. “And Ikusaba-san.”

Mukuro, whose face peeked out from over Junko’s shoulder, held up her hand and arranged it into a peace sign.

Junko slammed her palm onto the table. Everything on the table shook again. Chihiro looked ready to have a heart attack. She leaned heavily on her arm and said, “Kirigiri-san, are you still mangling your legs over your date this weekend?”

“How long have you been listening in?” countered Kyouko, which prompted Junko to burst out laughing.

“Peh-wease, Kiwigiwi-chan,” Junko alternated between scrunching her hands into fists and opening them up, “ev-wey-one knows about your date with Maizono-chan!”

Kyouko tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “I haven’t talked about it with that many people...”

Junko slipped onto the chair next to Kyouko and propped her right cheek in her palm. “Hey.” Her voice was calm. Bordering on sultry. “What aspect of your upcoming tryst is proving problematic?”

She hadn’t planned on telling Junko but then Makoto chimed in.

“Kirigiri-san is wondering what she should do if she runs out of things to say,” he said.

A toothy grin spread across Junko’s face. Kyouko kicked Makoto under the table. He yelled out but only Chihiro acknowledged him, for a few seconds before they turned back to Junko.

“That’s freakin’ it? Ain’t it obvious what yeh gotta do?” asked Junko. She jerked her body into a rigid upright position. Against Kyouko’s better judgment, Kyouko let Junko answer her own question. “Bury your tongue in her mouth! Or any other hole! Yahoo!”

Mukuro grimaced. “So much for keeping this G-rated.”

“... Gross,” was all that Kyouko had to say. She took a final sip of tea and placed the empty cup onto its saucer.

* * *

The grass wasn’t crisp enough to crunch under Kyouko’s boots, not like the scattered leaves, withered and brittle, that cried when she stepped on them.

“Kirigiri-san,” came a voice.

Kyouko turned her head, looking over her shoulder. Sayaka jogged up to her, passing through the school gates, and once close enough, sidled up to Kyouko’s side.

“Shall we get going?” asked Sayaka.

“Hm,” went Kyouko. Morning’s chill burned the end of her nose. She was about to tell Sayaka that she hadn’t chosen a particular place for them to visit, but then Sayaka spoke.

“Why don’t we go for a wander and see where that takes us?” said Sayaka.

“Heh. You read my mind.”

“I sure did, but it’s not a big deal. I am an esper, you know.”

Kyouko’s eyes widened.

Sayaka laughed a series of notes that made Kyouko’s heart flutter. “Joking! I have good intuition.”

A smile budded on Kyouko’s lips. “You would make a good detective.”

“You think?”

“Yes.”

And they walked away, chatting, holding the other’s mittened hand.

 

 


End file.
